Category archives for "nintendo"

How big is Super Mario Odyssey? How many moons are really there? Been wondering about this since got my copy back in October. Finally I have the answer! Took me around 20 hours to complete the game, and 65 more to true 100% it. There were a lot of nasty moons in there, played several weekends to complete the last 10 moons including the usual stupid adorable minigames. Everything is doable, it just requires practice and after a while you’ll figure out a good strategy.

There are 14 different kingdoms in the game, some small, some big. Three more kingdoms are to be discovered on top of that. You can collect 581 (75,0%) moons in the game and 194 (25,0%) post game. These add up to 775.

Out of the 775 moons 22 count as 3 (multi-moon), therefore the total number on the Odyssey’s sail adds up to 819. On top of that there are 61 moons which you get by completing certain achievements, which brings the counter to 880. If you reach this, the sail will turn to gold. You even get to replay the final Bowser fight with slightly tweaked settings.

To max out the counter on the sail, you need to purchase additional 119 moons which will bring the counter to 999 and the sail will reach its final size. At this point a giant cap on top of Peach’s castle will appear with some animation playing should you climb it. (Note that in each kingdom with a shop, the first moon purchased will be listed as “Shopping in [kingdom name]” individual moon.)

Exceptional platformer game, lots of great moments, detail and care – I just recommend it for everyone. I might even replay it at some point, but for now I’m looking into other gaming projects. (I have to pick up again Majoras 3DS, Metroid 3DS, Zelda Breath just to name three that I want to finish really bad before moving on to Skyrim on the Switch.)

[Nintendo] announced what it’s calling the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition. It looks just like a NES, only a lot tinier, and it comes with 30 games built in. You can connect it to your TV via a HDMI cable, and it also includes a controller designed to work just like the iconic rectangular NES gamepad.

It’s coming in November for 60 dollars. I wish Nintendo would add some kind of achievement system into the games so I can max every single one of them. (Ironically this week my father in law found my wifes old NES and SNES in the basement with a couple of games.) I also need to get a JVC TM-H1750C. And, of course, a basement where I install everything. 🙂

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 (GBA) is now out on the Wii U eShop. Why is this such a huge deal? And what’s with this confusing name?

I’ll explain. First, there have been four Super Mario Advance games for the GameBoy Advance which all have been remakes of original classics. In 2001 Nintendo released “Super Mario Advance” which was based on “Super Mario Bros 2”, the same year SMA2, which was a “Super Mario World” SNES port, then came SMA3 “Yoshi’s Island”, another SNES port in 2002 and finally in 2003 SMA4, which is a port of the iconic “Super Mario Bros 3”.

The game plays the same as SMB3, but with updated graphics. This is all good, but there is a catch, too: the US and JP versions had a special world, called World-e in the system. This world could unlock special levels (and special abilities) with the compatible Nintendo e-reader hardware (not sold in the EU). The unlocking mechanism was quite interesting: the map data was not in the game, just the tiles, sprites, mechanics etc, therefore you really had to get your hands on the cards to upload the levels, hacking the ROM itself didn’t lead you anywhere.

One of these levels is “Mad Dash” (unofficial translation). This level was not circulated on e-reader cards, in order to obtain this level, you had to bring your GBA and game to select retailers (in Japan!) where they’d upload the level to you. And if you did all this? Well, you had a speedrun level where you need to finish the level in just 20 seconds, so at max speed. Here is a playthrough on the level:

If you played all these special levels, you would find “Advance coins” scattered around, which would open up these Toad houses you see above on the minimap, where you could play three minigames. Better yet, certain levels contain “e-coins” scattered that you can only pick up once.

Upon collected, these coins are then just displayed in the World-e castle. The castle has 8×3 = 24 displays, but only the first 8 coins is obtainable from the released secret levels (and out of those 8, only cards for 3 were released in the US), so the remainder 16 slot will forever be empty. Nintendo had more plans for the e-reader cards, but I guess it didn’t turn out the way it should’ve.

I found ROM hackers on long forgotten forums who’d recreated the Mad Dash level, I was also able to source the savegame itself and whatnot, but the icing on the cake is that Nintendo has released this game just before new years with all these levels. Unfortunately only for the JP market, without English translation, but anyway, there is now a chance to experience World-e once again! (I’m secretly hoping for an EU release and for the 3DS.)

When Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Game Boy Advance under the rather misleading title Super Mario Advance 4, it included 30 secret stages – all falling under the banner “World-e” – which could only be unlocked by using the optional e-Reader accessory and a set of special cards.

Given that both of these elements were quite hard to get hold of even at the time of release, not many people got to experience these stages – but thankfully that has now changed as fans Baddboy78 and theycallmeshaky have painstakingly replicated the levels in Super Mario Maker.

I slowly get to see the real value in this game. Here is a good introduction what “World-e” meant in SMA4. There is a level which is super rare to get, even in SMA4: you needed to live in Japan, you needed this card reader thing and you had to actually go into selected stores to get the card and “unlock” the level in your game. This is the “B Dash de Kakenukero!” and it’s pretty hillarious!

“Super Mario Maker” is a bad comedy. Released in coordination with the 30-year anniversary of “Super Mario Bros.,” it indulges players in the fantasy that they’d be good at making video game levels. This sort of self-deception has become common in the age of digital consumption, and while there’s something utopian in “Super Mario Maker’s” appeals to community participation and sharing, the game quickly collapses into a scratch sheet of horrible ideas and levels you’ll regret having played. It’s a tool for the mass production of cultural refuse, single-use distractions that fail to replicate the spirit of the original.

Based on my short endeavour with the game I tend to agree with this. Most high rated user levels just butcher the finesse of the originals and makes you wonder how much testing and craft’d gone into the originals in comparison. Even the top rated user made levels are ugly, lame and feels like out of place.

Other than that, the game, the onboarding, the help-experience with all the codes made me cry in awe. There are 4 digit codes in the booklet that you can enter in the help menu, and you’ll get to see different gameplay videos and elements sharing ideas and showing concepts. It is so well done. But Nintendo, just like Facebook with Paper, made the false assumption that user generated content is beatiful.

If you want to enjoy Nintendo “sample” levels, just try hitting the 10 Mario challenge and you’ll get to play through the levels in blocks of eight. The first set is always the same and then it gets random. There are 68 official levels in the game. They are all very good and fun to play giving a nice twist to the game concept.

Love this art style and the way they change conventions (eg. instead of undo there is a dog face). I haven’t gotten my copy yet (ordered the amiibo bundle), was too late with the preordering. So I need to stick it out until next week, but I don’t mind, I’m always too busy anyways, very little time to do videogaming these days…

On July 12, 2015, Nintendo announced that Iwata died at the age of 55 due to complications with a bile duct growth on July 11, 2015. He was survived by his wife Kayoko. Funeral services are planned to be held on July 17.

Eiji Aonuma now says that “I must apologize to you that were expecting the game by year’s end, but we are no longer making a 2015 release our number one priority. Instead, our priority is to make it the most complete and ultimate Zelda game. (…) Aonuma says the team has “discovered several new possibilities” for gameplay while exploring the upcoming game’s open world structure.”